In the wake of Orlando, the government has renewed its effort to dismantle the Second Amendment.
“We did have an assault weapons ban for ten years,” Hillary Clinton told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “I think it should be reinstated.”
“Let’s keep weapons of war off our streets like the one that was used in Orlando,” she added, talking to the Today Show.
“We know the gunman used a weapon of war to shoot down at least 50 innocent Americans and, you know, we won’t even be able to get the congress to prevent terrorists or people on the no-fly list from buying guns.”
Omar Mateen, the suspected gunman in Orlando, wasn’t on a no-fly list. In fact, he worked for a company contracted to the Department of Homeland Security, the US Army, and federal and local law enforcement.
Following the attack, Clinton called semi-automatic firearms “weapons of war.” The suspected gunman, however, reportedly used an AR-15. The rifle is not considered a weapon of war because it is not fully automatic. Any resemblance between the AR-15 and the military grade and fully automatic M-16 is purely cosmetic.
On Monday, Clinton went further and equated the Second Amendment to a trap.
“I think we’ve got to get back to common sense safety reform, you can’t fall into the trap that was set up by the gun lobby that say you can’t stop every incident, that we should not try to stop any,” she told CNN’s New Day on Monday.
Clinton’s “common sense” attack on gun ownership would prove to be a failure, just as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban passed in 1994 during her husband’s administration failed to reach its stated goal.
The ban did not lower the murder rate. In fact, in 2003, the last year before the law expired, the murder rate in the United States was 5.7 per 100,000 people, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report. The murder rate fell to 4.7 per 100,000 people by 2011. Statistics show just 2.6% of all murders are committed using any type of rifle, The Wall Street Journal notes.
Wide Support for Second Amendment
Most Americans support the Second Amendment and believe encouraging people to carry firearms and take responsibility for their self-defense is a more effective way to fight against crime and terrorism than enacting draconian gun legislation.
In December, shortly after the attack in San Bernardino, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that most Americans support the Second Amendment.
The number of people favoring a ban is declining. The poll found only 45 perfect favor an assault weapons ban, down 11 percentage points from an ABC/Post poll in 2013 and down from a peak of 80 percent in 1994. Fifty-three percent oppose such a ban, the most on record, according to ABC News.
Despite public opposition to outlawing firearms, the government will continue its push to water down and eventually nullify the Second Amendment.
The former deputy director of the CIA, John McLaughlin, believes the Supreme Court will rule in favor of outlawing firearms.
“Much as an assault weapons ban makes sense, at least to me, its opponents seem always to have the upper hand. Probably the most important future factor will be which candidate gets to appoint the next Supreme Court justices. Recall that the Supreme Court in 2008 declared the District of Columbia ban on handguns unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, thus negating the ability of local jurisdictions to legislate such bans. A different court might roll this back in another test case.”
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